NPR actually aired a story about the cost on the day that Bob wrote his piece.

I'm way late on this, but the conclusion I came to (taken from my post on Bob's blog):

Ultimately, the question seems to boil down to employers (and / or insurers) being asked to pay more money, and the current system not allowing enough separation between the employer and the policy details for that to be uncontroversial. If there was enough separation, then we would be able to more clearly see the economic aspects.